Photo Courtesy of Mike Horne Photo

It was an absolutely gorgeous day Sunday at Auburndale Speedway as the track hosted the season finale for the Sunoco Super Late Model Series and the fans were treated to a great race featuring former ‘legendary” drivers along with features in six other classes.

Qualifying for the Sunoco 100 presented by Speedway Auto Sales was held on Saturday with Jesse Dutilly of Bradenton setting the quick time with a lap of 13.404 seconds, nearly a tenth of a second faster than second qualifier Nick Neri’s lap of 14.499. George Gorham, Jr., Joe Boyd and Jon Guy rounded out the top five in time trials.  The top eight from qualifying had eight youngsters from the grandstands pick Jeg’s hats that had the top eight starting positions on them and it was Patrick Staropoli getting “hat number one” to place himself on the pole flanked by Gorham with Dutilly’s hat coming up with the number three for third starting spot. (more…)

Photo Courtesy of SpeedRacer Photo

The weather was cool but the action was hot Saturday night at Auburndale Speedway as the DeSoto-Auburndale Sportsman Series hit the track for their season finale, a 75-lap contest with double points on the line. A nice field of 22 cars signed in and was set by qualifying times set three weeks previous when their event fell victim to rain that fell just after intermission began.

Seventeen cars were at the track on 9/24 and two of those failed to show for this race. That meant there were seven cars that did not qualify for the rained out show and they had to start from the rear of the grid.
Junior Beckner and Jason Vail led the field to green with Vail leading the opening circuit before Beckner took control for four laps only to see George Gorham, Jr. blast by him on lap six for the point. Caution flew for the first time on lap nine for Tim Sozio’s spin in turn three with Dora Thorne also spinning and Jamie Kennedy coming to a quick halt to avoid everything. Kennedy’s quick stop damaged something in the driveline and he was pushed to the pits becoming the first car to retire from the fray. (more…)

After a ‘forced” week off to dry out from Hurricane Matthew, Auburndale Speedway was back to business Saturday night with the Desoto-Auburndale Race Truck Series (DARTS) heading up a great night of racing action.

Michael Goddard of Naples took his “Gray Ghost” National Roofing Special around the track in 14.670 seconds to just edge Lakeland’s Cody McDuffie for fast time.  McDuffie circulated the “bullring” at 14.676 seconds with third quick time going to Cody Martell with a lap of 14.842 seconds.  Rounding out the top five in qualifying were Derek Pugh and point leader Becca Monopoli.

McDuffie drew a five for the inversion placing Monopoli on the pole for the 50-lap feature and she wasted little time building up a nice advantage over Pugh as Martell could not find the handle on his truck, backsliding from third to tenth in the first ten laps.  Fast qualifiers McDuffie and Goddard were on the charge moving around Pugh for second and third on the 11th circuit.

This race would not go all 50 laps under green like the last one as Mike Kohut spun off turn two just as the 14th lap was completed.  On the restart, it took McDuffie just one lap to slip by Monopoli for the top spot while Goddard would fall victim to a multi-truck mess in turn three on lap 17 that damaged his truck along with those of Tommy Kelly, Jason Lester and others.  McDuffie continued to set a blistering pace as the third yellow flag of the night was displayed for Martell who spun in turn four. (more…)